Cubs at Cardinals - 10/9/15 NLDS Game One Pick, Odds, and Prediction

MLB Baseball: Friday, October 9, 2015 at 6:30 pm (Busch Stadium)

Jon Lester vs. John Lackey

TV: TBS

The Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals play game one of the NLDS Friday afternoon.

The Chicago Cubs are coming off a Wednesday victory that eliminated the Pirates, and they’ve won nine straight games. The Cubs showed zero signs of nerves in their wild card match, as Jake Arrieta pitched a complete game shutout, while Kyle Schwarber and Dexter Fowler both went deep. Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant also seem due after combining for 0-7 from the plate in Wednesday’s victory. The Cubs are quickly gaining confidence and seem like they want to put an end to this curse nonsense that’s held Chicago back for so long. Jon Lester gets the ball, and he’s 11-12 with a 3.34 ERA and 207 strikeouts this season. Lester is 1-3 with a 2.56 ERA and 37 strikeouts in his career against the Cardinals.

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The St. Louis Cardinals finished the regular season with a 100-62 record and have lost six of their last eight games. The Cards finished with the best record in the majors in large part of a team ERA of 2.94, which was also the best in MLB. The Cardinals pitching rotation is flat out loaded with guys such as John Lackey, Michael Wacha, Carlos Martinez and Lance Lynn leading the way. Offensively, Matt Carpenter leads St. Lois with 84 RBI, Jhonny Peralta has 17 home runs and Jason Heyward has 160 hits. For this contest, John Lackey takes the hill, and he’s 13-10 with a 2.77 ERA and 175 strikeouts this season. Lackey is 3-1 with a 1.94 ERA and 39 strikeouts in his career against the Cubs.

The Cubs are 10-1 in their last 11 road games and 0-6 in their last 6 Divisional Playoff games. The Cardinals are 5-1 in their last 6 Divisional Playoff games and 1-5 in their last 6 games following an off day. The Cubs are 3-9 in the last 12 meetings in St. Louis.

It's getting to the point where it's tough to bet against the Cubs, especially on the road. The Cubs have won nine straight overall and 10 of their last 11 road games. Also, Lester has allowed two or less runs in six of his last eight starts. While Lackey has been solid in his own right, I find it difficult to bet against a team that's red hot and jumping right into another series.

Chicago Cubs

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